Preserving Fresh Thyme

You know Mom II (hubby’s mom) from my older posts where you can see some cartoons drawn by her. This canned fresh thyme is a gift from her. She is a big nature lover and a member of TEMA (The Turkish Foundation for Combating Soil Erosion, for Reforestation and the Protection of Natural Habitats). They visit small villages to enlighten villagers about erosion and importance of forests. As they love to be in nature, they go to countryside on foot. She says it sometimes takes more than 2 hours. And she also has a small group with whom she goes hiking at weekend to mountains around her city to get familiar with trees, flowers and herbs closely. They have herb picking sessions. They even climb to the peak. She says the city looks splendid from there. And they pick fresh daisies, sage, St. John’s wort, thyme from there. She says the highest, the better as herbs are cleaner there as they are away from exhaust pollution. They dry these herbs and make their own herbal teas.

She picked this fresh thyme in one of these sessions last April and canned it for us. We have this fresh thyme at breakfast. Does it sound weird? But it goes perfect with a slice of bread topped with cheese or olives. Also, you know there are always sliced tomatoes and cucumbers at a typical Turkish breakfast and this canned thyme makes a perfect touch to these veggies. You can even use it as an addition to your salads, especially with meat or chicken dishes.

Wow! This sounds amazing. I would love to put some of this on some freshly baked bread with a bit of cheese in the morning. You had me drooling! And what a neat organization…she must love being a part of it. Thank you for sharing this with me…I would have never thought to preserve herbs like this.

Wow! I LOVE this idea and to serve it at breakfast is such a yummy idea, especially since this is one of the few herbs that I have had success growing. I will be a gelen this year and have been so worried about different dishes for breakfast. I know the basic cucumber, tomatoes, cheese, bread, and olives, but wanted to have some extras for variety and especally to impress my mother-in-law when she is here visiting us from Turkey.

Turkish breakfast is different from the modern American breakfast (cold cereal or hot oatmeal), which I am sure you know. However, it is similar to the country breakfasts that my grandmother prepared, with eggs, meat, potatoes, fresh tomatoes, and savory chow chow (pickled cabbage mixture from Southeastern USA, especially the Deep South). She would also put out anything else that ‘needed to be eaten’ from the garden. I still wonder how I managed to be so thin as a child. There was so much food and happiness around. It seems you must be creating the same environment in your own home. I love your cooking philosophy! In my opinion, sharing makes our social network stronger, which definitely has a benefit to our personal health. Elle na salik! (I am certain I misspelled it.) I am learning…